MOBILE, Alabama—The two productions in Mobile Opera's
2013-2014 season are set in The Land of the Rising Sun.

But the country of Japan is all they have in common.

Giacomo Puccini's "Madama Butterfly," coming
in March. 2014, is the tragic tale of a Japanese teen mom. And Gilbert &
Sullivan's "The Mikado," being staged this coming October, is an absurd comic opera
with characters named Yum-Yum and Pish-Tosh.

Both works are among the most popular and
beloved operas of all time.

"These two shows were good
companion choices because both are sure to please but for entirely different
reasons," said Mobile Opera Artistic Director Andy Anderson.

Mobile Opera General Director Scott
Wright also sees the operas as an ideal duo.

"'The Mikado' and 'Madama Butterfly'
make a natural pairing because they are similar and poles apart at the same
time," Wright said. "'The Mikado' is
really about British society and the comedy of social perspective. Its connection to Japan is fictional in every
sense of the word and it never fails to make an audience laugh. 'Madama Butterfly' is set in a more historical
Japan and never fails to bring audiences to tears."

Anderson and Wright chose operas based in
Japan to lend some cohesion to the season

"The idea is to match productions
in some way so as to have a thematic programming as opposed to an eclectic
collection of shows," Wright said. "It
allows us to build an interest around that theme as well as the individual
productions."

The theme of the 2012-2013 season
was "Mobile Opera Goes West." It included a western update of Gaetano Donizetti's "Don Pasquale,"
And Giacomo Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West," which is set in a California
gold mining town circa 1850.

"Madama Butterfly" is the second installment
in Mobile Opera's Puccini Project, a ten-year cycle in which the company will
stage all of Puccini's operas. The Project's debut production was "La Fanciulla
del West."

"Butterfly" and "Fanciulla" are both based on
plays by American writer David Belasco.

"Butterfly"'s storyline is simple.

Cio-Cio-San, also known as "Madama Butterfly"
is a 15-year-old geisha living in early twentieth century Nagasaki, Japan.

A
marriage broker arranges a union between Butterfly and visiting U.S. Navy
Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton.

Butterfly takes the marriage seriously, but
Pinkerton isn't quite so committed. And the marriage isn't binding. Pinkerton
has an annual chance to opt out of it.

Butterfly even offers to convert to
Christianity, much to the disgust of her family. Pinkerton eventually leaves
Japan, and Cio-Cio-San gives birth to their son. Butterfly faithfully waits and
waits for her husband to return.

While she anticipates a reunion with
Pinkerton, Butterfly sings the wildly popular, dramatic and heartbreaking aria "Un Bel Di, Vedremo," which translates to "One Beautiful Day, We Will See."

When Pinkerton does come back to Japan three
years later, he brings his American wife, Kate.

Devastated, Butterfly commits suicide to
prevent a life of disgrace and to make sure Pinkerton and his wife take care of her
son.

Puccini's first stab at "Madama Butterfly"
premiered at Italy's La Scala opera house in 1904 and was received horribly.

Puccini re-worked the opera and around 1906 he completed
the version with which audiences are now familiar. "Butterfly" went
on to become one of, if not the most
popular of all Puccini's operas.

"'Madama Butterfly' is such a beautiful, emotional work that it
stays in the top ten of every opera company's 'to do' list," Wright said. "It
has been ten years since it was seen in Mobile."

The plot of "The Mikado" is as crazy
and convoluted as "Madama Butterfly"'s" is straightforward.

"The Mikado," or "The Emperor," is a satire of Victorian English politics and society. The Japanese setting distances the opera from the subject of its ridicule, and adds color and an exotic touch.

It also gave Gilbert & Sullivan the opportunity to give the characters punny pseudo-Japanese names like Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo and Pooh-Bah. The action takes place in the fictional town of Titipu.

The 1999 film "Topsy-Turvy" is about Gilbert & Sullivan's creation of the comic opera. The "Mikado" premiered at London's Savoy Theater in 1985, and the opera's plot is about as topsy-turvy as it gets.

The lovely young Yum-Yum wishes to marry her beloved Nanki-Poo. But Yum-Yum's guardian Ko-Ko, who also happens to be The Mikado, wants to wed Yum-Yum himself.

And that's about as coherent a set-up as I can muster.

The dizzying story also includes a law punishing flirting with death, cases of mistaken identity, random characters popping up to complicate things further, and a host of other absurd happenings.

"The Mikado" is Friday, Oct. 25 at and Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 and "Madama Butterfly" plays Friday,
March 28 and Sunday, March 30, 2014, All performances are at the Mobile Civic
Center Theatre, located at 401 Civic Center Dr. For tickets and more information, call
251-432-6772 or visit www.mobileopera.org.

Maria
Callas sings "Un Bel Di, Vedremo" from "Madama Butterfly"

"Three Little Maids From School Are We" from "The
Mikado" and the film "Topsy Turvy"